IMF to examine opportunity of increasing financing volume for Moldova

The head of the IMF mission, the head of the European Department of IMF, Thomas Richardson considers as constructive the collaboration with the Government from Chisinau and remarks the will of the Moldovan Executive to re-launch cooperation with IMF. The discussions which took place during the meeting organized on September 11, with the prime-minister Vasile Tarlev tackled the range issues concerning the collaboration of Moldova with IMF, especially the implementation of the new program for 2006-2009. According to a press release of the Government, Thomas Richardson estimated that the structural efforts are efficiently implemented and that the Government carried out all the planned actions for this period, both budgetary-fiscal and monetary indexes. The IMF official mentioned that, although some macro-economic indexes were influenced by external factors, a positive trend was registered in all areas. In order to maintain the development tendencies, in the near time, according to Richardson, the Fund will examine the opportunity of increasing the financing volume for Moldova. The IMF evaluation mission within the frameworks of PRGF will stay in Chisinau during October 11-25, 2006. The main purpose of the mission is to evaluate the achievements of the Government and of the National Bank of Moldova regarding the implementation of programs engagements, as well as for evaluating macroeconomic tendencies for 2007. The mission will try to reach an Agreement with NBM regarding the macroeconomic forecasts and objectives for 2007. Structurally the program is expected to have 3 directions: continuing reform in the financial sector, improved fiscal management and structural reforms meant to improve the business environment. In the middle of December is planned to disburse the first installment of the credit amounting to USD 118.2 mln. Because of the shock situations Moldova was exposed to, related to the increase in price of the natural gas and Russia’s embargo on wine export, the value of the first installment will be increased by USD 16.2 mln. IMF Program for Moldova was approved at the beginning of May 2006 for a period of 2006. The document was approved on the base of the Mechanism for the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP) and will implement its objectives.